A safe place to hang out

COEUR d'ALENE — “Game night, game night, let’s do game night!” said Andrei Smith, when asked what kinds of events he’d want to do for Night Out.

Board members from the National Alliance on Mental Illness Coeur d’Alene hosted their first Night Out on Friday at the Human Rights Education Institute, and asked everyone who came what they might want to do with these events moving forward.

The evening events will be around 6 p.m. the last Friday of the month from now on, said Becca Stinson, president-elect of the NAMI Coeur d’Alene Board.

“It’s just a safe place for everyone to hang out and socialize and be together," she said.

The NAMI Cd’A board was inspired to create Night Out after attending a conference with NAMI Far North, which has been hosting similar events in Bonner County.

“Everyone up north was just so accepting and so welcoming and so embracing that people that had mental health issues found themselves very comfortable,” said Donna Brundage, NAMI Cd’A board member. “And we came out of that with the idea that we wanted to bring it back somehow.”

The first Coeur d’Alene event aimed to evoke that feeling in a small gathering with modest goals: to try to understand what the event can be, and what the people attending want it to be.

The board decided to start simple with popcorn and a movie, where they watched “Silver Linings Playbook” and hung out, inviting people to come and give feedback.

Because it was the first Night Out, the evening was marketed minimally by word of mouth so around 14 people attended, but following events will be published or posted on the NAMI Cd’A Facebook page, and anyone can come. The NAMI Cd’A board just wants it to get bigger every month so they can reach more people and help them to feel accepted as part of a community.

Stinson brought a popcorn machine with flavored salts, and there were M&Ms and Oreos.

Trinity Group Homes, a St. Vincent de Paul North Idaho program that supports adults facing mental health challenges, brought a van full of people, including a board member and residents, to hang out. Heritage Health posted flyers and local community groups were included in email invites. Local group homes were also texted invites.

“I want to get ideas from everyone who comes to hear what they want these events to be,” Brundage said.

Smith wants to see a game night.

“I love games,” he said. “I love camping. I love the outdoors.”

Other attendees were excited about bowling.

Some other ideas included going to a renaissance faire, to see civil war reenactments, concerts or the farmer’s markets, dinners out, bus trips to fun places, board games, karaoke and other activities as the group grows.

“We’ll put it out publicly on Facebook,” Brundage said. “The purpose is a safe space for people with mental health issues. For them to get together and not be judged and feel comfortable.”

She plans to write grant requests to fund the adventures, especially as attendance goes up.

The Region One Health District will receive future invitations and distribute them to a network of roughly 20 mental health organizations.

“There’s a grant for NAMI National that we’re going to apply for,” she said. “So that it could be dinner at a restaurant, it could be pizza. It could be a trip to Otis Orchards. We really wanted to get the feel of what people want, and start simple for the first one.”

So far it’s a mellow gathering with a handful of friends coming together for a free night of entertainment and snacks.

“Primarily it will be a safe place for people to gather,” Brundage said.